By Bus

From Kofu Station - Leaves approximately every hour from in front of the station (South side) and take about 1:30. It costs around 1,500 (I haven’t taken it for a while so I don’t remember the price. In my mind it is 1,630).

Eating and Drinking

Fujiyoshida has a wealth of restaurants. 60+ Udon restaurants (a map of which is available at Fujisan station) that the town is famous for, almost every family restaurant chain you can imagine, as well as a variety of small local places. I will not list all of these though and will instead focusing on those which to me are a cut above the rest (for whatever reasons).

Moose Hills Burger

Best burger joint in Yamanashi. It is a Canadian themed burger place and the staff is friendly and speaks a bit of English. The burgers are big and delicious, served with a modest side of wedges. They also do sandwiches, nachos, onion rings and other dishes too.
As far as drinks go, they have some good beers (expensive though), milkshakes and juices, as well as the usual fare.

Has an English menu.

Recommendations

The Special Steak Burger

The Avocado Cream Cheese Burger

The Cream of Spinach Burger.

Price

The burgers are anywhere from 1000-2000yen. Beers are around the 700-1000 mark.
On average, I spend 2,500-3,500 (for myself) when I go.

Monburan (Mont Blanc)

Best parfaits in the world. This quaint parfait place has somewhere in the region of 100 parfaits on the menu. Some are small and simple and other (such as the King) are giant and filled with everything from fruit and cornflakes to crème caramel and chocolate. They also have a variety of pasta and dorias (my personal favourite).

Mitsuboshi Maato

Everything is 280yen! This is the 280yen restaurant version of a dollar store. Everything on the menu costs 280yen. It is izakaya style, so that is the kind of food you should expect. There is a wide variety of food as well as a lot of kinds of drinks. You order by pressing an electronic pen against the menu (procedure is slightly more complex but really not difficult). I would encourage this more for drinking than eating.

No English menu (as far as I remember)

Recommendations

Lime sours

Chicken Namban

Potato salad (mille-feuille or some such)

Price

280 x as many things as you want to order. On average it seems to cost about 3,000 each.

Fujiyama Brewery

Microbrew and Ribs! This brewery comes equipped with its very own restaurant. Here you can enjoy the deliciousness that is their beer while feasting on ribs and pretzels (or other food, if you are a loser). They have 3 regular beers – Pilsner, Weizen, and a Dunkel. They also have seasonal beers from time to time. Food-wise, the ribs or the Eisveinn are the way forward. They also have soft pretzels which go well with the beer. There is a big enough menu with things such as pizza, stew, sausages, garlic bread, etc. but I have never really delved too far into that as I stick to the ribs.

English on the menu, I believe…

Recommendations

Ribs and beer – have I said that yet?

Price

A pint of beer will cost about 600yen. The ribs are about 1800 for a full rack (I think)

Carne

Does exactly what it says on the tin. This is the best yakiniku I have ever eaten. It is not as good as Kobe beef, of course but for yakiniku, it is as fine as it comes. This is an Italian themed yakiniku place so you can get pastas and salads to accompany your meat.

No English menu.

Recommendations

The most expensive karubi is to die for! Their lime sours will also knock your socks off.

Price

It runs a bit high (10,000 for two – mostly just food) but it is worth it for a special occasion or just to splash out.

Home-run Ramen

A local delicacy. This place makes my favourite ramen and is one of the best things to come out of my going to the gym (that is how we found it). It is a pretty small ramen shop and looks kind of run down, but do not be deceived by appearances. They not only do ramen but also gyoza, chahan and a variety of other sides.

Tomifuji

Eels! If you like eel, then this is the place for you. Here you can get eel as well as other types of seafood dishes – including turtle, apparently. You can get different qualities of eel (depending on how much you want to pay). You can also pick your eel and watch him prepare it.

Should have an English menu, of sorts.

Recommendations

As if I need to say it, eel.

Price

Haven’t been for a while but I seem to remember paying 2,700 for a good piece of eel on rice.